Bill strikes at mental health privatization

May 13, 2010

Written by

MELINDA DESLATTE

Associated Press Writer

BATON ROUGE, La. — Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plans to hire outside contractors to run some of the state’s inpatient psychiatric treatment facilities would face stumbling blocks, if lawmakers agree to a proposal backed Wednesday by a House committee.

The bill would give lawmakers the ability to review — and reject — any privatization contracts involving the state’s mental hospitals, including two the Jindal administration proposes to privatize in the upcoming budget year that begins July 1.

The two sponsors of the proposal, Reps. John Bel Edwards and Tom McVea, said they want to ensure the state will save money and maintain the same level of care before hiring a contractor and laying off state workers at the mental hospital Jindal proposes to privatize in their area, the Jackson campus of the Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System.

“What we’re talking about here is a fundamental, extensive change in the way we deliver mental health to the citizens of the state of Louisiana,” said McVea, R-Jackson. “I think we need to just slow the train down. This doesn’t stop privatization. This just says, ’Let’s take a breath.’”

In budget hearings, lawmakers have expressed concern about laying off state workers and hiring outside firms to run inpatient psychiatric services and other state-owned health care facilities, and those worries were repeated Wednesday in the House Health and Welfare Committee.

The committee approved the bill in a 13-3 vote, over objections from the Jindal administration that it was improper meddling in the state’s contracting process. The measure heads next to the full House for debate.

Under the proposal, the privatization contracts — if they are for three years or more — would require review and approval from the House and Senate health care committees and the Legislature’s joint budget committee before the contracts could be awarded.

The bill also would require the state health department to consider the contractor’s willingness to hire current state workers at the hospitals as part of its evaluation process.

Jerry Phillips, undersecretary for the Department of Health and Hospitals, said lawmakers will decide whether they support the governor’s privatization plans when they vote on his budget recommendations. The bill by McVea and Edwards, D-Amite, would mix policy decisions with implementation decisions that should be left to the agency, Phillips said.

“If what DHH is doing is so wonderful and so good, please tell me why they’re so afraid of the review process,” said Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Marksville.

Jindal’s budget proposal for 2010-11 anticipates a $6 million savings by privatizing the Jackson hospital and the Central Louisiana State Hospital in Pineville. McVea said layoff notices have gone out to 100 workers in Jackson, who will lose their jobs in July, and he said another 100 people were expected be laid off by January.

Among the opponents of the bill was the chair of the committee, Rep. Kay Katz, R-Monroe, who said she doesn’t believe the health care committees should approve or reject contracts, which she called legislative micromanaging. ———